Today it was the primary swarm from the nuc I got from Allen last year. This is the nuc that had a queen from his nuc yard rather than the purchased California queen. Kristien and I attempted to box the swarm twice but because they had clustered under the pallet […]

Yesterday evening I saw a virgin queen in the observation hive for the first time since this craziness began. She was running like a wild thing! The reason soon became apparent. The bees balled her! Note the condensation on the hive glass. This point on the glass was considerably hotter […]

When Todd and I put AfterSwarm B in the box, I thought it would be a good idea to add a frame of brood to make sure they stay. I’ve read that’s advisable with virgin swarms. So down to the bee yard we went. I figured I would take the […]

So on May 10th I thought the congestion had increased to the point the bees may swarm again. Well swarm they did! On May 12th the bees produced what has come to be known as AfterSwarm A. They congregated on the window. I dutifully swept them into […]

Today I added a second honey super. The first box felt pretty heavy (guessing 80% full), so I under-supered (or should that be sub-supered). It was a box of comb from last year’s hive 3. The Black Locust trees just bloomed yesterday in the area, so I think the timing […]

So the congestion in the observation hive is increasing again. It is 10 days since I first noticed a capped queen cell and none have hatched. I hear the queens quacking off and on. The bees are all over the queen cells that I have found. I wonder […]

This tuesday, while I was away, Liz and Todd removed the cloak board slider from Q4, effectively reunited the upper box of bees with the pheromones of the queen. They also took this picture of the queen cells: The artificial royal jelly was completely rejected by the bees, but […]